Review on Manfrotto Grip Action Ball Head: Lightweight Magnesium Fluid Tripod Ball Head for Content Creation, Vlogging, and Photography by Brian Cruz

The first Manfrotto 324RC2 joystick head I received had a small problem - one of the screws that attached the camera platform to the joystick was missing. Because the camera stage was held by only one screw instead of two, it was impossible to be sure the camera was properly attached. I almost kept my head but figured it would take too long to find specialty fasteners and selling individual screws is annoying for industrial parts suppliers who typically require minimal purchasing. I would have to buy 50 to get the ones I need. Revain quickly sent a replacement. But the second joystick head also had a small assembly error - the dragonfly was never glued, just stuck in the head without glue. Obviously Manfrotto has production problems. Both heads suffered not from the design, but from careless assembly. I would recommend this product but would caution against looking too closely. When unpacking the product, none of the above problems occurred. In fact, I had to dive into the trash can to get the packaging to return the first device. Not being able to stick a bubble level doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it's important because camera leveling is the primary purpose of this device. I've decided to leave the second head but then I might regret it if I don't have the right glue, I have to go across town to buy something, fight holiday jams, then ruin the application and smear the glue over ruin the details or my clothes. Such small imperfections too often take on a life of their own. Production issues aside, if there's anything lacking about this unit it's the inclusion of a separate riser. As you can see in the photo, the base attachment point of the joystick head is not very high. This is sufficient for most tripod applications. However, it would be useful to have extra padding to allow the joystick's full range of motion in all applications. In my case I don't mount on a tripod but on a tacky platform on top of a small desktop dolly used for video. This head is definitely powerful enough for a DSLR and has a very nice design. The parts are solid and well made - highly recommend, barring sloppy assembly caveats.